Dr. Kouwen’s groundbreaking work over the past year has revealed that the Ontario Ministry of Environment’s noise limits are being exceeded a majority of the time near industrial wind turbines (IWT’s) at locations in Grey Highlands, ON, Canada. Furthermore it appears the MOE model is flawed and “substantially underestimates” wind turbine noise. We spoke with Dr. Kouwen about his methodology and ongoing work.

Cary Shineldecker of Ludington, Michigan was on the program. Cary is Petition supporter #1017.

He writes, “I am a resident caught in the middle of a wind development. Not only do these ruin our lives, but they ruin every thing in nature we hold sacred. Wildlife, Scenery, and the Value of Quiet Places for generations to come. Put an end to this madness. Turbines cannot even create enough energy to pay for themselves. Stop development now.”

Cary is trying to sell his home nestled between 56 turbines.

Graham Lang and Lyndsey Ward spoke about the brand new national alliance — Scotland Against Spin

Rural Ontario is being plundered by the McGuinty government and his wind developer allies. The citizens are actively resisting the onslaught. We will talk to some of the leaders of the resistance.

Annie Cool has graciously accepted co-host duties again for this week’s program and will join us for an amazing line-up of guests. Annie is living in the shadow of the public health nusiance know as “Wind One.”

Mark Davis, Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Arran Elderslie , farm country consisting of 1 town, 2 villages, several hamlets and about 7000 people, located in central Bruce County which is about 10 miles off the shore of Lake Huron about 3 hours northwest of Toronto. Cash crop and Beef farmer, Real Estate Sales Rep for Coldwell Banker and Auctioneer doing charity auctions for worthwhile causes. Mark has been a strong opponent of Industrial Wind Turbines for quite some time and is chair of the Inter Municipal Wind Turbine Working Group consisting of 12 to 15 municipalities from about 6 counties of like minded elected and appointed citizens doing their very best to work with the Ontario Green Energy Act and come up with bylaws and ideas to get some control back to local government and the people directly involved.

Greg Schmalz, the founder of S.T.O.P. Saugeen Shores Turbine Operation Policy resisted group opposing placement of CAW ( UAW in Canada) whose 35 story turbine on the grounds of their $70M resort is surrounded by 100 families living within 550 m and over 4,000 people within 2,000 m. This turbine has become the lightning rod representing all that is wrong with placing turbines too close to people’s homes and businesses.

Lisa Thompson is the MPP for Bruce-Huron. She was elected to the Ontario Legislature on October 6, 2011, winning the riding of Huron-Bruce by defeating a Liberal cabinet Minister. Residents of Huron-Bruce were tired of their voice not being heard at Queen’s Park, and Lisa was determined to change that, hence her motto “Huron-Bruce Matters” and “Rural Ontario Matters.”

In her first three weeks as a MPP, Lisa stood up numerous times to lend her voice to the plight of rural Ontario and the divide that the development of industrial wind farms is having on the area. On December 8th, 2011, she tabled a motion calling for a moratorium on further wind development until third party health and environmental studies have been completed. On March 8th, that motion was debated in the Ontario Legislature, and was defeated by the Liberals and NDP. Lisa was extremely disappointed, as were the 100 or so people in the public galleries who came to watch the proceedings. They effectively stood up and turned around, turning their backs to the Liberal government, as they feel the Liberal government has turned their back on them. Lisa has continued to stand up for citizens who feel violated by this government’s divisive and irresponsible energy policies. More information can be found at Lisa’s website, www.lisathompsonmpp.ca.

Jane Wilson, a Registered Nurse and health care writer and editor, who is the current president of Wind Concerns Ontario, a coalition of individuals and community groups in Canada’s most populous province, Ontario. She is also the editor of a book on how the Ontario government has pushed the industrial wind power generation agenda at the expense of Ontario’s people and communities, called Dirty Business: the reality behind Ontario’s rush to wind power. Jane lives in a rural community which is part of Canada’s capital city, Ottawa; her community is threatened by a 20-megawatt industrial power project that will be too close to hundreds of homes.

Along with our special guests:

Gail and Ed Kenney of Wolfe Island Ontario whose appeal of their property value assessment was rejected this past week by Ontario’s assessment review board because they could find “no evidence”. Didn’t the fact that zero homes had sold since the 86 Turbines went up actually constitute stark, compelling evidence?

WWR will be talking with the victims of industrial wind from different areas.

Barbara Ashbee was forced out of her Amaranth, Ontario home by the siting of industrial turbines too close. Barbara could easily count 15 turbines from her yard. Her experiences with the local and provincial government are scary and disturbing.

“The Ontario government did not help, in fact they mislead us on the number of complaints they had received and were claiming all was running in compliance when it wasn’t.

The Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) released a literature review in May 2010 concluding there are no direct health issues linked to turbines. The developers and government actually use this review to approve new wind projects and they hand out copies at wind meetings but theThe CMOH Dr. Arlene King, was well aware of the serious problems in many wind projects in Ontario before she signed off on the literature review. She was made well aware that families were being made sick with some being forced from their homes and chose not to speak with even one of them. She was warned. …There is a wall of silence but as the evidence mounts they will have to answer to it at some point. These people are in a position of public trust and their lack of action or even acknowledgment of what they are doing to people is very serious

Neil Anderson hails from Falmouth, Massachusetts and has been a leader in the effort to tell the story of the many families in Falmouth who have been severely impacted by the turbine know as Wind One. Wind One is located at the town’s wastewater treatment plant a little more than 1300 feet from Neil’s home. As many as 50 families have been impacted and they have managed, for now, to get the turbine turned off. Neil was an advocate of the turbine before it turned on and started to impact his health.

Richard Braithwaite lives in Keyser, West Virginia and was one of seventy-five neighbors who signed a petition seeking a solution to the noise coming from the Pinnacle Wind project. He purchased an inexpensive sound meter and routinely registers 60 – 70db outside his home. As he says, “Let them bring their thousand dollar machine and take their own readings.” The wind developer has paid lip service to the complaints and is installing, of all things, a muffler!

Gerry Meyer lives in the 86 turbine Forward Energy project in Brownsville, Wisconsin that was erected by Invenergy of Chicago. There are 5 – 400’ turbines within ¾ of a mile and 11 within a mile of his house.

Gerry attended the first few public meetings about the Forward Energy project. (that was long after many local farmers were signed up to host turbines). The Invenergy representatives and the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin told the public the turbines were quiet and would be a great benefit to his community. Gerry left those meeting feeling good about wind energy.

Gerry knew know about the Horicon Marsh Advocates, a group fighting for a 5-mile set back from the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, however he did nothing to help them in their cause. As a rural mail carrier he drove within the project often stopping to take photos and on his way home from work stopped to talk to workers and take more photos. As a former construction worker the turbine construction was intriguing.

On March 3rd, 2008 he walked out of his house and heard a jet flying over. He looked to the sky for that jet. There was no jet. It was the large industrial wind turbine 1560 feet straight north of his house. This was the first day of operation of this turbine. He immediately knew he was lied to by Invenergy about the quiet sound of the turbine. This did not sound like the wind blowing through the trees. It sounded like sitting on the runway at O’Hare Airport. He began writing a daily noise diary which can be read at http://lifeinawisconsinwindproject.tumblr.com/.

“In the house there are thumping sounds everywhere, especially upstairs in the sewing room. Very tense and sickening.”

Just a few of the heath affects caused to Gerry’s quality of life are sleep deprivation, high cortisol levels, chest pain, pulsating the neck, nausea, exhaustion, no longer has dreams, cognitive thinking issues and the concern of what other heath affects are down the road due to constant sleep deprivation.

Dr. Robert McMurtry is the founding chair and currently an adviser for the The Society for Wind Vigiliance, an international federation of physicians, engineers and other professionals promoting the development of authoritative international wind turbine guidelines to protect the health and safety of communities. The mission of The Society for Wind Vigilance is to mitigate the risk of both physiological and psychological adverse heath effects through the advancement of independent third party research and its application to the siting of industrial wind turbines.

He was a member of the Health Council of Canada for 3½ years and a member and special adviser to the Royal Commission under Roy Romanow on the future of health care in Canada. Dr. McMurtry was a visiting Cameron Chair to Health Canada for providing policy advice to the Minister and Deputy Minister of Health. He was the Founding and Associate Deputy Minister of Population & Public Health, Canada. Dr. McMurtry sat on the National Steering Committee on Climate Change and Health Assessment. In 2011, Dr. McMurtry became a Member of the Order of Canada for his leadership and vision in helping to strengthen health care delivery in Canada. The Order of Canada is Canada’s highest civilian honor.

Presently Dr. McMurtry is Professor (Emeritus) of Surgery, University of Western Ontario

Please vote AGAINST SA1812, the amendment to the S1813 transportation bill submitted by Senator Stabenow which includes extensions of the wind energy Production Tax Credit and the “Section 1603” Treasury Grant Program for 1 year.

Together, these programs cost taxpayers $5 billion in 2010 and even more last year. In return, communities have been left divided, landscapes degraded, and natural habitats destroyed — with no measurable positive change in our energy situation.

Again, I urge you to vote AGAINST any extension of the Production Tax Credit or the “Section 1603” Treasury Grant Program.

Please RSVP to Steve Wright at salmo@vtlink.net (or call, 586-7705) to join car pool to the forum discussing “The Future of Alternative Energy in Vermont” featuring State Representative Margaret Cheney, Jeff Wolfe, CEO, groSolar, David Blittersdorf, President/CEO, AllEarth Renewables, Michael Dworkin, Vermont Law School Director of the Institute for Energy and the Environment. It will be held Monday, March 12 from 6-8:00pm, Marion Cross School, 22 Church St, Norwich, VT. Light refreshments will be served.

For purchase by libraries, colleges, K-12 schools, media centers, and other non-profit educational organizations. Can be used for screenings of 50 or less, may not be open to the public, and no admission may be charged. For more information, please contact: windfalledu@gmail.com

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